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How Obama's New Energy and Environment Team Will Try to Save the Future

If the U.S. hopes to combat climate change, it's Ernest Moniz and Gina McCarthy versus. the Republicans.

Obama just announced his picks for Energy Secretary and EPA chief: if they make it through confirmation, EPA lifer Gina McCarthy and MIT physicist Ernest Moniz will fill two of the most unpopular posts in the administration. They will, essentially, be tasked with saving the future from the jaws of anti-science Republicans. Their jobs will be beyond ugly. Three simple reasons explain why:

1. Republicans have heaped more scorn on the EPA and Obama's clean energy initiatives than anything this side of Obamacare.

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2. Nonetheless, Obama has recently announced his intention to make major progress on climate change in his 2nd term.

3. Because congressional Republicans are united in their opposition to greenhouse gas-regulating legislation of any kind, Moniz and McCarthy will be tasked with carrying out Obama's entire future-saving agenda.

And they will be derided and relentlessly vilified for it. Even though both of the candidates have a history of bipartisanship, and both are considered too cozy with industry for some environmentalist's tastes—Moniz supports fracking and natural gas as a bridge fuel, while McCarthy has previously worked for Mitt Romney and been endorsed by no fewer than seven high-profile coal and oil industry heavyweights—all that's out the window now that they're in the cabinet's hottest of hot seats. Both are vocal supporters of combatting climate change, a notion that won't fly with a Republican party that's still lost in a denial-shrouded fog.

Republicans will almost certainly try to block at least McCarthy's nomination, seeing as how she helped draft the much-needed greenhouse gas rules on power plants that Obama eventually plans to roll out. After that, expect any and all beltway Republicans to oppose most major initiatives either might deign to undertake. With any luck, the straw man ghost of Solyndra will die with outgoing energy secretary Steven Chu's departure—even clean energy-hating GOPers may find it difficult to blame Moniz for the solar company's bankruptcy—but we should anticipate continued resistance to serious investment in clean energy.

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In the face of all that, more than perhaps any other officials, these two chiefs will be tasked with overseeing the rollout of Obama's stab at preventing catastrophic climate change. Here's what each will try to do to save the future:

Gina McCarthy will tackle the United States' greenhouse gas emissions. This is the big one. And it boils down to this: Since legislation isn't an option, it's up to the EPA to get industry to tamp down its climate change-causing pollution. The EPA regulations, which would force the nation's largest power plants to reduce their carbon emissions or face massive lawsuits and fines, have been on the backburner for years now. The Supreme Court confirmed in 2007 that greenhouse gases could be regulated as pollution, and Obama's Lisa Jackson-led EPA announced in 2009 that they would do precisely that if Congress didn't act. Congress didn't act. So out come the big, cumbersome, and extremely complicated pollution rules.

Republicans will throw a fit. They'll moan about how it will destroy jobs, raise energy prices, usher in the four horseman of the apocalypse, etc. But there's little they can do to stop it. McCarthy has been a longtime advocate of carbon regulation—she helped draft the rules currently on the table herself. Some environmentalists seem concerned that because she's compromised with industry before, she'll take the teeth out of the upcoming regulations, or be inclined to punt. But there's plenty of reason to expect McCarthy will carry the torch Jackson has passed her, and that she'll work to implement the greenhouse gas regulations that could become the hallmark of Obama's environmental legacy.

Ernest Moniz will have less to do—without the avalanche of clean energy funding allotted to Steven Chu in the wake of the stimulus bill, his biggest task will be publicly advocating for more clean energy, and continuing programs like Chu's SunShot initiative. As the Washington Post notes, he'll mostly be left to use the "bully pulpit" to push for things like offshore wind power, and to make sure renewable energy tax breaks don't expire. And, sure, he's comfortable with fracking, but the EPA regulates that process anyway.

With Moniz and McCarthy on board, a picture of the next few years comes into focus some: Obama will continue to paradoxically push for more oil and gas development and maneuver the climate regulations closer to fruition. The EPA and Energy chiefs will both pay lip service to the "all of the above agenda" and help implement it, while attempting to institute one of the most important overhauls to the American energy production system in history. If the U.S. has any inclination to help fight climate change left in it, this is our ticket. The only thing that stand between here and drastic, urgently-needed CO2 drawdowns are a bunch of powerful, super-ornery Republicans. Moniz and McCarthy have their work cut out for them.